Two outstanding musicians Sacha Gibbs-McPhee and Owen Thompson will follow the history of the guitar when they meet on stage at the Good Shepherd Hall at Noosaville on Saturday March 21.
Clarinettist Sacha is artistic director of the popular Noosa Chamber Music concert series but he and Owen will be the only two players for the concert which they are calling “Six-Stringed Atlantic Voyage.”
“In the first half we will play music by baroque composers Bach and Scarlatti, and a work by Schubert, the popular ‘Arpeggione Sonata’. The Arpeggione is a rare instrument which resembles a cello but has frets and six strings like a guitar. We are playing an arrangement where the clarinet takes the melody line.
“We take a trans-Atlantic flight in the second half of the program, which consists entirely of Latin-American music. such as Choro, Samba, and Tango.
Sacha said the guitar became popular in Moorish Spain and influenced the traditional music of the region. “When the Spaniards and Portuguese boarded ships bound for the New World, they took their favourite instrument.
“In its new home, the guitar accompanied a new style of dance music with European harmonies, Arabic melodies, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Latin music was born!”
Guitarist Owen Thomson is a highly regarded Australian musician adept in many styles, Baroque music, heavy metal, or Latin jazz. He was the winner of the 2000 Adelaide Guitar Competition, and numerous other awards and scholarships including the Gwen Nisbet Memorial Award, the Murray Sharp Chamber Music Prize and the Lady Stephen Scholarship.
He is an authority on guitar performance and taught at the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of Melbourne. He now lives Noosa.
“Six-Stringed Atlantic Voyage,” Good Shepherd Church Hall, Noosaville, March 21 at 4pm. Tickets $40 and $35 for concessions available at www.sachagibbsmcphee.com/tssav or at the door.
